I want to start an anime club at my school. I'm not sure about certain details yet (i've only been considering/member trolling for a few days) But here's what I'm thinking:

I'll probably just burn fansubs to DVDs or bring in my own purchased DVDs because I've only got like 6 people joining at first and we don't need permission for a public showing.

It would be once a week. I'm thinking either 1 hour (3-4pm) or 1+1/2 hr times, with 1 or 2 episodes each.

there would be popcorn and soda, either at my expense or at the expense of the school or the memebers, depending.

I want to petition the school to stock the library with some more tasteful manga.

First few days I'll probably ask people what they want to watch and stuff, I won't show things on TV in america though but i will allow for discussion of them the first 15-30 mins or so. (like Inuyasha or Cowboy Bebop). Even some American anime on DVD prob. wont be shown (some will) just because it's available or popular in more places.

I want to have everybody pick a japanese name. they dont really have to call eachother that, but it would just be for fun.

I'll put some Japanese or anime music on in the background when we aren't watching anything.

If people like to draw i might have a drawing contest - digital or print - and put them up on the wall.

we'd have a donations jar for memebers to stick donation money into, and I'd put a paper near it explaining exactly where the donations go (advertizing, snacks, new manga and DVDs)...

I'd bring in my newtype-usa and share some of the good articles.

any suggestions? ideas?

Do you have any other people in it with you? If more people are willing to help you start it up you got a bigger pool of resources to keep things fresh at the club. Maybe you could also have a specific topic of discussion ready for each week, or even incorporate learning bits and pieces of japanese each week as well.

hmm. I think the idea is really nice, perhaps perfect for a club in a school. I just remember at the time when I was still going to school. If someone said anime there, the whole school is gonna laugh at that guy...

I want to do a Japanese word of the day and let people choose Japanese names, and maybe a "this week in history" thing, but that might be hard to find. That would also establish solid content for a newsletter both online and in the monthly school newspaper.

I think the idea is good, but I'm not sure if its wise to use Fansubbed animes for school. Still, good luck with it.

First off, good job! It's a pain to start an anime club and I have to admire people that take the initiative.

The advice I'm giving you is from what I've experienced at my University, however, these also apply to High School clubs.

I would stick with fansubs in the beginning, until you get established "officially" by your school. Once you have proof that your school recognizes your club, you get the fun job of emailing/snail mailing companies asking permission to show their titles at your meetings. The perk to doing that is some companies will send you free swag (promo items) to pass out at your meetings.

Get to be buddy-buddy with your foreign language department. Even if you don't have Japanese at your school sometimes teachers will require their students to attend "cultural events." If you can convince them that this is cultural, you might be able to trick people into attending.

I would do something "special" once a month to please your members, like a movie night. Pick something that a lot of people might not be familiar with and is a must-see anime title, like Otaku no Video or something equally cracked out and necessary. After the showing hold a small quiz for the attendees. Whoever wins gets some of the free swag you received from the anime companies you're asking to show.

I have more advice, but I'm kind of out of steam. I just got back from vacation today and I have classes tomorrow. I'll try to post more later, if I can.

Well, well...

We have local anime club here in my town. It not connected to any school or university, just few people loving anime. We meet every Saturday, watching and exchanging anime, drawing fanart, sometime having tea parties. Of course we don't need any permission from governance or companies because In Russia is freedom of speech.

This is our group photo(60kb) - http://neforum.com.ua/forums/Lemur_lair/041027.jpg

I can't give you much of suggestions, may be only one - that it always hard to talk then discussion concerns money problems. So try to ask before how much money people can and want to donate in club moneypool.

That is all, i think (english so hard for me to write, and sorry for my mistakes)

Good luck, comrade!

That's cool Lemur!

I don't want the club to be considered really school sponsored or promoted or anything, then what would I do with all my wonderful romance ecci titles?! I just want permission to use a classroom and projector for now.

I want to start an anime club in school. So far I think the last anime club that was made in my school quit. I really hope for a pan-anime alliance in my school were we can all talk about anime.

I already did start an anime club.. didn't like how my school, while so many others did, didn't have one.. I started with just me and my friend who came up with the whole idea. We got a teach to host it with us.. once we signed the form for starting a club.. we went straight to work.. First we got a room that would be big enough to hold the members and allow us to access anime-watching tools.. We got a flash drive (burning was too much trouble) and stuck it on to a pc.. and aired it on one computer room where there was a screen put up already.. it was awesome. All that took about 4-5 days to figure out and set up.. and then came the fliers which were hard because we needed to print copies for 4 floors and make sure everyone's eye caught it.. we had to take 3-4 days doing all that and putting up posters.. that's all we did really... during the 2 weeks that went by I would have random people coming to me asking about it or my friends telling me I hear people talking about your club and stuff... So on the first day.. the reception was huge.. bigger than I would've expected.. I put like 20 ppl on the members list (we needed an estimation) but 50+ turned up instead.. I got scared because they were crowding the hallways... and security came because they assumed that wherever kids gather round there has to be a fight.. so anyways.. a lot of the people were cutting.. and so we had to have some people leave and others come in.. anime is something that is bound to catch people's eyes.. my members really were surprised to see me as the president because I don't exactly look like the anime type.. but they still loved me.. and thanked me everyday for like starting such a wonderful thing.. it really got me busy.. but i was happy that i did such a thing.. you should have a pretty good time with it if you start one.. seriously..

fyi I am like in the local library and some kid just comes up to me saying "anime club right?" That kinda freaked me out cuz i was out of school.. and i had never seen the kid before in my life.. so I might just advise you to be wary of stalkers...